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Pollen Concentrate Preparation from Highly Organic Holocene Peat and Lake Deposits for AMS Dating1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Ffiona Richardson  and
Valerie A. Hall
Ffiona Richardson
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Plant Science, Agricultural Botany Research Division, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science, Queen's University, Newforge Lane Malone Road, Belfast, BT9 5PX, Northern Ireland
Valerie A. Hall
Affiliation:
Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, BT9 6AW, Northern Ireland
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Abstract

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Many of the problems inherent with conventional 14C dating of lake and peat deposits are eliminated by AMS dating of pollen concentrates. Published work describes production of pollen concentrates through expulsion of most of the deposit matrix by repeated deflocculation, selective sieving and final retention of the largest subfossil pollen taxa. Less suited to pollen concentrate production are the highly organic peats and lake muds from the British Isles and Europe. In this study we tested the combined effectiveness of physical, chemical and microbiological degradation and elimination techniques for pollen concentrate production on highly organic peats and a lake mud. We also reviewed methods of enhancing concentrations of smaller sub-fossil pollen grains. Here we present a novel method of assessing AMS dating precision of pollen concentrates by comparing their calibrated dates with a volcanic event of known historical age.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , 1994 , pp. 407 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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